What has the Cloud ever done for me?
5 Feb 2018Most businesses will have some element of Cloud access in the systems that they use. But for those companies who still aren’t sure about trusting their crucial business data to something so nebulous, the benefits can be a little…nebulous as well.
So what really are the benefits to moving your business to the Cloud?
As I view it, there are 4 key benefits to working in the Cloud: flexibility, security, reliability, and stress reduction.
Flexibility – the obvious benefit
This is the number one benefit on everyone’s list when it comes to talking about working from a Cloud based system. You can work in the office, from your home, on the train, and even in the middle of a field if you’ve got a decent mobile carrier.
And that’s great. Gives you a flexibility you may not have had before.
From my own point of view, this flexibility isn’t a huge one, I really only use it to work from home a few days a month.
But I have colleagues who like to be plugged in all the time and they find this to be the biggest advantage to working in the Cloud.
Security – a pretty key benefit
People who aren’t too sure about storing their business data in the Cloud will often be most concerned about the security element. And of course they are, data security is a number one priority for most businesses.
You have to, of course, examine this closely when shopping around with different providers, asking questions about the security of data centres, encryption, user permissions, etc.
I think a lot of people get very nervous when asking about security because they’re afraid they don’t know the right questions or answers. But in my experience, most Cloud providers will be more than happy to talk to you about security to reassure you that your data is well and truly safe.
And they’re happy to speak with you about it because your data is safe and secure in the Cloud. Huge amounts of money have been poured into the data centre and data security industries to make sure every single end user can feel confident that their data is secure.
Reliability – a similar, but slightly different benefit
Going hand in hand with security, you need to know that your Cloud system(s) will be there when you need them.
Obviously this is an important part of feeling confident in sending over your business data, which is why any provider worth their salt will be willing to chat about the stability of their infrastructure and their uptime statistics.
If you’re going to be using this system from all sorts of locations, you need to know that you can rely on it to be there and working (and accurate) at all times. After all, if you’re standing in a field trying to look at your data, the last thing you want to do is to dig out the number of your provider to find out why you can’t access it.
But again, in my experience, I’ve never had any reason to doubt the reliability of the Cloud services that I use…mainly because the Cloud has always been there for me.
Stress Reduction – the total surprise benefit
Really, after all that stressing about researching and confirming the security and reliability of your Cloud service provider, I think that using the Cloud helps reduce stress?
Well…yeah.
Once you’ve found the right services and systems, the knowledge that my data is safe and also available when and where I need it takes a huge amount of stress off.
I can walk out of the office to go to a meeting without working about printing stuff off or forwarding emails around, I know that my data will be there when I need to login and view it.
Simple.
So if you’re still not sure whether the Cloud is for you (or your business), why not give us a call. We’ll chat all day long about security and reliability, to make sure you get the flexibility (and stress reduction) that you’re looking for.
Although I originally hail from northern California, as soon as I arrived in Yorkshire I knew it was the place for me! At OpenCRM, I started out in the Business Development team, and then moved into compliance and Q&A because I love telling people what to do…ok, that’s not the real reason, but it makes for a good bio one-liner. When I’m not in the office, you can usually find me tramping through the dales, crafting, gardening, or with my nose in a book.